Barefootbutterfly Studio Blog

I got married to my soulmate a little while back (I'm such a lucky girl) & I really wanted a wedding gown that reflected my own artistic personality & my love of vintage couture.I wanted it all too... poufy, lacey, full on Cinderella stuff.

That gown existed in my mind & so when I decided to make it a reality I was lucky to find a lovely seamstress in Rita, a perfectionist like me who was able to work with me to create the gown of my dreams!This gown started as a blank tulle dress I purchased at David's bridal but it was transformed into a couture , one of a kind work of art by the time she & I put our minds together.Believe it or not, the fabric that we added into another layer of the skirt was a set of BLUSH PINK CURTAINS that I had found at a thrift store about 5 years earlier!My friends said I was CRAZY to want to add old curtains to my wedding gown, lol. It was fate though! It was a new/vintage (kinda) dress that was going to worn by me,a second time around bride lol.

She was PERFECT.so of course I had to do her very own photo shoot :)

Just look at those awesome vintage curtains under that tulle! ​The perfect shade of blush pink!

​​Thrift store shopping is essential to my life. Period. Serious. Spare moments are precious & mine are spent in thrift stores, lol.Annnnnd some of you know I have a love of special dolls......Yesterday, I happened to stumble across a sweet little vintage baby doll.

But not just any baby... A prince!

There sitting on a cold rack , waiting for his new mum wasbeautiful little Prince William himself!Made by Royal Doulton & the House of Nisbet, this 'First Born Collectors doll' is premium hand painted bone china, not regular porcelain.

I knew when I picked him up he was needing love & had to come home with me!His bonnet needed a few stitches & his face needed a little wipe but after all,​ what are dolly mums for? I think he looks pretty cozy in his new spot don't you?

This baby doll is stunning & his Christening gown is beautiful! His skin is beautifully pale & translucent & so detailed!

Maybe it might seem odd to folks that im posting a pic of a giant pine cone but there is a story to it :) I had a great weekend with my love Scotty down in Seattle, going to a huge Christmas craft show at the Tacoma dome & hitting all sorts of thrift stores etc .. but one little thing that we did was the most thought provoking by far. We went to an estate sale.

I don't know how many of you have been to an actual 'Estate Sale'. The real thing... where the reason you are there, in a persons home, is because they have passed away & their family has hired a company to come in and liquidate all of their personal belongings. I have been to a few but this one was different. I wanted to go because frankly, the photos I saw of the furniture on craigslist that were going to be sold reminded me a lot of things I remember my own grandparents having. Fine furniture, gilded items, beautiful things & the like. So the craigslist ad said that the sale was over at 4pm due to the apartment complex rules & in typical me style, we drove up at 4:02 :) I wasn't sure if they were going to let us in but I figured, ah, what the heck, it's worth a shot. So we go to the front door of the apartment & some fellows are being let in with a dolly to pick up furniture that was purchased & I say with puppy dog eyes, 'are we too late for the sale? We came all the way from Canada...' She eyes us up & says, 'ok, go quick!' I hear her say on the intercom "a couple is coming up, they are from Canada" lol.. i guess we have pull?

So up we go in the elevator & enter the apartment which was 3 floors up. The absolutely amazing view of the Seattle skyline hit us right in the face when we walked in. I quickly do my "scan for the good stuff"... surprisingly, there was still good stuff left. I nabbed some ornate Borghese trinket boxes which I was super surprised that an antique dealer had not scooped up, a beautiful little hand painted cabinet, a couple of sweet round occasional tables, a cool assortment of hobnail glass & because the sale was over & I was the last one in, it was all 50% off. NICE!

So I've gathered my goodies & i'm doing the last look around, reflecting on the fact that this was the last of these peoples worldly treasures when I spot this lonely cardboard box in the corner with what looks like a chunk of wood sticking out. As the lady is wrapping up my treasures, I go take a quick peek. Low & behold, there in the box, are thee biggest pine cones I have ever seen! They are giants! My mind starts wandering as to where in world they could be from... the mystical redwood forest maybe? I scoop them up & add them to my pile. They are the real treasures :) All weekend they were buried in the back of our truck in the box they had been in for, Im very sure, a reeally long time. I brought them in the house when we got home & laid them all out, big to small. This is a collection. A collection of memories from someones life! There are giant ones & tiny ones. Smooth ones & prickly ones. Shiny ones & iridescent ones. Natural memoirs of good times & trips gone by in a cardboard box in the leftovers of these folks fancy Seattle apartment was the best find of all :)

This pretty little (or rather big) piece of garden art I created is under a dreary sky right now in my yard but she still sparkles! About 95 % of this birdbath is made with vintage Early American prescut glass by Anchor Hocking in the Star of David pattern. Hopefully the sun will come shine on her soon! :) Check out the first birdbath I made here which was featured on Addicted 2 Decorating! :)

First of all I am very new to the blogging world so if im doing wrong or if you have tips for me, please feel free to email me or comment! My creative mind seems to always be in high gear so when I saw the glass totems people were making I decided to try a birdbath because I have lots of little birds in yard that are always twittering about! I already had a few pieces but just started looking for more on my regular thrift store junkin days, keeping in mind the structure I was going for. I needed a sturdy base, some medium sized pieces for the center column & then a nice big dish for the top. It evolved into a 2 tier birdbath when I scored 2 pickle dishes in the same pattern both with cute little handles! I set up the bottom half & the top half separately & dry so I could see how the pieces would fit. I had my man by my side ready to catch in case of disaster! I then glued 2-3 pieces together then let set overnight. When those were nice & dry I glued the bottom 2 portions & let sit for around 5 hours, then glued the top section on. There done!No wait... I was a bit stalled when it came to the top. I knew I wanted a small focal piece but I wasn't sure what. I tried setting a few different finials (bottle toppers) there & they just didn't seem to turn my crank. I went on a final junkin hunt (who am I kidding, there is never a final junkin hunt) for a small glass bird & all I could find was a black & clear swirly one, thinking to myself how many times I had seen a clear glass one but had never picked it up,lol. I brought the little "black sheep" birdy home & to my surprise it added just the right amount of dark to the otherwise sparkling clearness of the glass! I glued her on & set her out & she glistens in the sun so beautifully! I used Goop Household glue which specifies it is for glass and I handle it very carefully, making sure to lift it from the base. Next project.. one for my mom's new house!

I have since finished one for my mom's new home & another one you can see here which I made almost entirely out of vintage early American prescut glass.. she's a beauty!

UPDATE! :)I've had a bunch of questions as to what the pieces are in this bird bath so here goes...There are 20 pieces in this birdbath all together... #1-the bottom piece is a large plate. I've heard that old microwave plates work well for this & you can cover them with dirt or mulch. #2- a bowl with a square foot. #3- a square decanter. #'s 4,5,6,7,8,9,10 are custard bowls. #11 is the large pickle dish with handles,#'s 12,13 & 14 are more custard dishes. #15 is a cut glass candle holder. #16 (which is sort of hidden inside #15) is a smaller cut glass candle holder.#17 is the twin of 16 turned upside down.#18 is the small pickle dish with handles.#19 is the finial (top, lid) from #3 (the square decanter) last but not least, #20 is my little black & clear swirled birdie! I find if you use thicker glass everything is much sturdier & use quite a bit of glue & allow to dry very thoroughly, gluing 2, maybe 3 pieces together at a time. I'm creating my next one with mostly all pieces of glass with a familiar vintage pattern called Early American Prescut Pattern by Anchor Hocking. It's also called the Star of David pattern & I think everyone had a cream & covered sugar bowl in their home! It's been fun finding pieces to make the bird bath & I'm almost ready to start gluing! :)